


Super Dad

by quickwest



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 08:59:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7354411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quickwest/pseuds/quickwest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris has caught a cold, so it's on Barry to pick the kids up from school, get them fed, and ready for school the next morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Super Dad

“Hey Barry,” Iris said when Barry finally answered the call. He hadn’t noticed that he had three missed calls from her, but adjusted the ear piece of his phone while she spoke.

He had been spending a lot of time recently in between STAR Labs which had been converted into the Justice League headquarters and CCPD. But when he wasn’t working, he was at home as much as he could be, especially for dinner with his family; he vowed to be there every night. The twins were eight years old and were more than a handful. He was grateful for the league though because it didn’t always feel like the weight of Central City was on his shoulders.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Barry asked.

“Can you get the kids from school today? I had to leave work and go home just now,” she informed. From the other end of the line, her voice was weak and scratchy.

“Are you okay?” Barry asked.

“No, I think I caught something or I might have the flu,” she replied with a sigh.

“Do you need anything? I can leave STAR Labs right now,” Barry offered.

“No, it’s okay I’m in bed with soup, crackers, medicine and Netflix. Just pick up the kids from school,” she said.

“Okay,” he nodded, “love you.”

“Love you too, bye.”

Without hesitation, he dropped what was going on with the league, leaving Hal in charge because his family needed him more. This would be easy, it’s not like he hadn’t taken care of his own kids before.

When three o’clock rolled around, Barry was one of the first parents to arrive to Central City Elementary School to pick up the twins. He stood outside his car, leaning on the passenger door until both his kids peered out. They were joined together while Don was showing Dawn his toy car that he started repairing with Wally. At the same time, they tore their attention away from the car and looked up at the silver van and Barry standing in front of it.

“Dad?” Don said, surprised.

“Hey,” Barry smiled.

It felt like he had to mask his excitement of seeing his kids for the second time that day, but being with them made his day better, no matter how stressful it was. He never thought he could love anyone as much as he loved Iris, but the kids proved him wrong.

He had to resist the urge to hug them because they were approaching that age where they started feeling embarrassed by their parents and dodged every hug and kiss, so instead he did one of those awkward one arm wrapped around their shoulders thing then got settled in the car.

“Okay, seat belts?” Barry asked, looking at Dawn and Don through the rearview mirror.

Both nodded.

“Where’s mom?” Don asked as Barry began to back his car out of his parking spot.

“She’s at home. Which reminds me, once we get there I’m going to need you two to be on your best behavior because mom isn’t feeling too well.”

“I want to make her soup,” Dawn said definitively, clasping her hands together in her lap.

“I don’t know if she’s going to want sou—” Barry began to say but then Dawn interrupted.

“When we get sick, mommy makes soup. I want to make her soup so that she gets better,” she said.

It was true, Iris always made them chicken noodle soup when they were sick even though they didn’t stay sick for longer than a day or a few hours since their regenerative DNA healed them quickly, but Iris was sure to make them feel better and it was their favorite. It was Dawn’s favorite, and for such a young age, Dawn was so decisive, sometimes a little too stubborn, but Barry loved that about her. He bit back a laugh and said:

“Alright, we’ll make her soup.”

 The ride home was silent. Barry noticed that Dawn was always looking out the window, watching other people or when it rained she watched the drops of water run down the window. Don was always preoccupied with the silver and red toy car. Wally introduced Don to engineering because when Don was four and kept asking Wally about his job, then he became obsessed and asked his uncle about it all the time.

Barry would never forget the day Don asked Wally if he could be an engineer too, and without a thought, Wally said, “You can be anything you want to be.” Don had been focused on fixing toy cars ever since.

When they got home, they washed up and sat down for a snack while Barry went upstairs to his room to check on Iris.

“Hey,” Barry said once he walked inside their bedroom.

Iris tried sitting up, but it seemed useless. When Barry called her before heading to the school, she told him that she was getting chills and felt too weak to do anything. She sighed and laid back with blankets piled on top of her body.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, putting a hand on her forehead. He felt that she was burning up.

“Somehow worse than before,” she answered then went into a terrible coughing fit. Barry hated seeing her like this. She didn’t get sick often but when she did, it was bad. She would be bed ridden for days, unable to work.

“Oh god, I’ve never wanted to be a metahuman, but now I can’t help but wish my body had the ability to heal as quickly as yours,” Iris said.

Barry laughed, humorlessly, “Sorry babe. You should make a doctor’s appointment.”

“No, it’s okay. I just need an extra day or two. Where are the kids? You did remember to pick them up, right?” Iris asked.

“Of course,” Barry answered sounding offended but then Iris made a face that said, “oh really?”

“That was one time,” he stated.

“Right,” Iris laughed.

“They’re downstairs eating a snack,” he informed her matter-of-factly, but nothing with their kids was ever that simple. They were never just doing their homework or just watching TV or just eating a snack. Right on cue, they heard a clang of something breaking from downstairs.

“They should be eating a snack,” he corrected, “I’ll be back.”

Barry sped his way downstairs to find Dawn covering her mouth but her eyes lingered with amusement. Don was on the floor looking at his sister angrily and rubbing his head, and the plate of snacks, which turned out to be carrots and celery, was shattered on the floor.

“What is going on down here? Barry asked.

Both of them quickly looked at him, his hands firmly planted on his waist. He didn’t like to be too hard on them, but it seemed like whenever he or Iris turned their backs for one second, one twin would start running around, speeding throughout the house then the other would chase them and something would break and one of the twins ended up hurt. When neither answered, Barry sighed.

“For the last time, no super speed in the house. Clean up this mess, and once you’re done, go to your room,” Barry ordered.

The next task was dinner, which turned out to be a lot easier than he thought. After the twins cleaned up the broken plate, they came back and apologized to their dad and promised to be good. Barry let them decide on dinner of macaroni and cheese which also didn’t surprise him.

“Can we make the soup now?” Dawn asked, excitedly when they finished clearing off the table.

They were in the kitchen, both the kids had towels in their hands and helped Barry dry off the dishes as he washed them. Almost forgetting about the soup, Barry nodded, looking for the ingredients; chicken broth, carrots, onions, celery, noodles, and chicken strips.

“Can I cut the vegetables?” Dawn asked.

“How about you wash them off?” Barry compromised because the last thing he wanted was to see his eight year old daughter walking around with a knife.

Eagerly, she nodded and all three of them started to work on the stove. It was serene as they all fell into a rhythm with the twins switching off between rinsing the vegetables and they each had little step stools that allowed them to see and reach the stove. Barry let them take turns with stirring, and once it was done they almost wrestled over who can take the bowl to their mom.

“I’ll carry the bowl,” Barry said, stopping them from attacking each other in the kitchen. “Dawn you will take the water and Don will take the spoon and napkin, okay?”

They both grumbled their response of “yes, dad,” and then went up to the bedroom. Iris wasn’t sleeping, in fact she was making her way back to the bed from the bathroom.

“What are you–?” she started to say, but then Dawn cut her off.

“We made you soup,” she smiled.

“You did?” Iris asked, surprised. Barry could tell that she was trying to act like she had more energy than what she actually had. She made her way back to the bed, but tried to appear energetic and lively because he knew that Iris didn’t want them to worry.

“Yep,” Dawn nodded. 

“Thank you,” Iris said as they all settled. The twins put the cup of water and napkins on the nightstand next to her, and Barry sat on the foot of the bed. Iris asked them about their day at school, and Barry had heard it all already.

They both did well on their math tests even they were both struggling lately, and Barry already hung their tests up on the refrigerator. They both decided to read the Harry Potter books for their reading class, and they were making their own self portraits for art class, but then after they wanted to draw each other since it seemed more fun. 

Iris listened intently as they recalled their day, and Barry realized that this was always the best part of his day; when all of them were together and just hung out. The kids excitedly talking, Don wasn’t occupied by his toy cars, and they enjoyed spending their time together. It was everything he could have wanted and then some.

* * *

Barry was up earlier than usual the next morning because he had to make sure the kids got up in time. After he helped them with their homework the night before, they went straight to bed while Barry stayed up a little late to finish some work.

The morning rolled around quicker than he wanted, but he made sure the twins got up and ready for school. While Dawn was still upstairs, Barry was in the dining room with Don who was sitting and eating bacon and waffles. He was fumbling with the button of the cuffs of his black button down when the front door opened.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Barry asked as Wally walked inside.

“I came to check in on Iris, everything okay?” Wally replied.

“Yeah, last time I was up there, she was sleeping, but I was about to bring her some orange juice for when she wakes up,” he answered, but he was distracted by some mail that was left on the counter.

“I can do that if you want,” Wally offered.

“Thanks, but I can do it,” he said then looked over at his brother, “You mind joining Don for breakfast though? There’s waffles.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he nodded, patting Barry on the shoulder just like Joe always did.

Barry left the glass of orange on the bedside and felt her forehead, making sure her fever from the night before had reduced. Then he went into Dawn’s room to see if she was ready.

“Alright, sweetie, are you almost ready?” Barry asked.

Dawn was sitting on her bed with her shoe laces tied, books packed away, and arms crossed on the bed. She was looking at Barry expectantly.

“What? What’s wrong?” he asked, crouching down in front of her.

“My hair,” she said, pointing at her head, “Mom usually does my hair before I eat breakfast.”

Barry hesitated, “Right.”

He hadn’t done this in a long, long time. After Iris got her appendix removed when they were kids, she was discharged from the hospital after a couple of days but was stuck in bed until her scar healed. He would check in on her before and after school. And one day she was upset that she was bed ridden unable to do anything so in order to help her feel better, he did her hair.

Barry knew he was in over his head but he was able to help her smile instead of being so sad after her surgery. He did it then and he could do it now, or he could try.

“Okay,” he exhaled and grabbed the brush and hair tie on the dresser. 

He remembered to run the hair cream through her hair first from the roots to ends then ran the brush through the top half. But then he thought about being younger again and doing Iris’s hair. He had to brush from the bottom of her hair and go up. The bottom was the most difficult but also made it easier to bundle all the hair into a ponytail.

It wasn’t elaborate, but he did it. Dawn’s hair was tightly secured in a ponytail and the textured hair formed a poof at the ends of her hair.

“Thanks dad,” she smiled.

“No problem,” he said, proud of himself, “Now go eat breakfast with your brother and Uncle Wally.”

“Uncle Wally is here?” she asked excitedly.

“Yeah, hurry,” he replied when Dawn jumped off the bed, “Except no super speed.”

Barry was exhausted already. How Iris did this routine with the kids every morning was a mystery to him. It wasn’t like he wasn’t there in the mornings because he always was, but Iris usually held the house down.

By the time he got to work, he had already drank a cup of coffee and was looking for another before making his way to his office. As director of the CSI division of CCPD, he moved from the small lab to an office upstairs. He went through the motions of a normal day, managing the department, big cases, his workers, and his own project of solving cold cases. When lunchtime came, he decided to go back home to check on Iris.

“What are you doing?” Barry asked when walked inside their room where he found her sitting up, typing feverishly on her laptop. He hadn’t even thought about the work the league was doing lately since Wally had stepped in.

“Since my fever broke last night, and my temp has been 98 degrees for more than six hours, I thought I’d catch up on this article,” she said.

“You should be resting,” he said and laid down on the bed.

“I’m fine,” she shrugged, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “just tired.”

“Oh sounds like the kids have worn you out,” she observed. He noticed that she closed her laptop and set it down on the nightstand table next to her.

“I don’t know how you do it,” he sighed then rolled over and rested his head in her lap, “You’re like super mom.”

“Not super mom,” she snorted, running her fingers through his hair, “just a regular mom.”

“You are more than that,” he sighed, “and the kids and I, we are so lucky.”


End file.
